DISINFO: Under Minsk Agreements Donetsk & Luhansk could return to Ukraine in exchange for refusing to join NATO
SUMMARY
The Minsk agreement was that Russia would return these territories [Luhansk and Donetsk] to Ukraine, and Ukraine would simply not join NATO. That is, these territories, which would be returned to Ukraine, would have the right of veto.
RESPONSE
A pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Minsk agreements. This claim emerged in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Contrary to the claim, none of the Minsk agreements included a condition of Ukraine's refusal to join NATO, or the granting of veto rights over the country's foreign policy under conditions of increased self-government for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Before the invasion, Russia was a party to the Minsk agreements, and these are the most recent formal documents in which Russia has affirmed Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia has however not delivered on its side of the implementation of the Minsk agreements. The main impediment to a peace settlement in Donbas was, in fact, Russia’s and its proxies’ deliberate unwillingness to implement the Minsk agreements. These documents, signed by representatives of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Ukraine, Russia and leaders of the illegal separatist entities (DNR and LNR), provide, among other things, for a comprehensive ceasefire and withdrawal of foreign troops from Ukraine. Kyiv announced a truce in July 2020, but the Moscow-backed separatists have violated it virtually every day before the invasion.
Read the full debunk at Myth Detector.